Bessemer vs Vestavia Hills

A side-by-side comparison of Bessemer and Vestavia Hills: population, income, housing, and more.

Bessemer and Vestavia Hills are places in Alabama. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Vestavia Hills has the higher population (38,704 vs 25,655 in Bessemer). Vestavia Hills has the higher median household income ($129,171 vs $37,844 in Bessemer). Vestavia Hills has the higher median home value ($494,500 vs $129,800 in Bessemer).

Population, income & housing

	Bessemer	Vestavia Hills
Population	25,655	38,704
Median age	42.8 yrs	42.0 yrs
Median household income	$37,844	$129,171
Median home value	$129,800	$494,500
Median gross rent	$922	$1,455
Housing units	12,612	15,275
Homeownership rate	55.1%	75.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	14.4%	62.2%
Unemployment rate	8.8%	1.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bessemer	Vestavia Hills
Population	26,680 → 25,655 (-3.8%)	34,307 → 38,704 (+12.8%)
Median household income	$32,301 → $37,844 (+17.2%)	$109,485 → $129,171 (+18.0%)
Median home value	$86,500 → $129,800 (+50.1%)	$376,200 → $494,500 (+31.4%)
Median gross rent	$743 → $922 (+24.1%)	$1,218 → $1,455 (+19.5%)

Bessemer

Population

26,68025,655

Median household income

$32,301$37,844

Median home value

$86,500$129,800

Median gross rent

$743$922

Vestavia Hills

Population

34,30738,704

Median household income

$109,485$129,171

Median home value

$376,200$494,500

Median gross rent

$1,218$1,455

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bessemer	Vestavia Hills
Under 5	7.0%	5.3%
5 to 17	13.8%	17.9%
18 to 24	9.1%	6.3%
25 to 34	11.1%	10.1%
35 to 44	10.6%	14.0%
45 to 54	11.6%	14.3%
55 to 64	15.2%	12.8%
65 to 74	12.8%	9.8%
75 and over	8.9%	9.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bessemer	Vestavia Hills
White (non-Hispanic)	18.5%	83.2%
Black or African American	70.6%	5.8%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.1%
Asian	0.2%	5.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.4%
Two or more races	2.6%	1.8%
Hispanic or Latino	8.2%	3.5%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bessemer	Vestavia Hills
No high school diploma	13.1%	6.1%
High school graduate	40.0%	14.1%
Some college or associate's	32.4%	17.6%
Bachelor's degree	9.3%	33.6%
Graduate or professional degree	5.1%	28.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bessemer	Vestavia Hills
Drove alone	76.5%	76.3%
Carpooled	9.5%	6.1%
Public transit	1.3%	0.1%
Walked	2.2%	1.1%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	9.6%	15.6%
Other means	1.0%	0.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bessemer	Vestavia Hills
1-unit, detached	72.7%	70.0%
1-unit, attached	3.6%	3.6%
2 to 4 units	9.8%	5.9%
5 to 19 units	7.1%	12.1%
20 or more units	4.4%	8.0%
Mobile home & other	2.5%	0.4%

Poverty & households

	Bessemer	Vestavia Hills
Poverty rate	30.7%	9.0%
Average household size	2.36	2.51
Mean commute (minutes)	26	20
Median year structure built	1963	1978